This Anti-Gay Bakery Set Up A Funding Campaign To Pay Its Civil Fines And Got Shut Down

In 2013, Sweet Cakes by Melissa closed after the owners refused to make a same-sex wedding cake. The lesbian couple they turned away filed a civil complaint which stated that the bakery must also pay the couple $135,000 in emotional damages.

The bakery, now operated in the owners’ home, set up a GoFundMe page to help with the fines. Owners Melissa Kleine and her husband Aaron stated on their Facebook page that the fine will financially ruin the family as the business has no way to meet those numbers.

Sweet Cakes’ GoFundMe efforts raised a little more than $100,000, however, GoFundMe removed the campaign the next day. The crowd-sourcing site told CNNMoney that the campaign involved the defense of formal charges regarding heinous crimes, which prompted them to remove it entirely. These crimes included violent, hateful, or sexual acts.

The bakery responded to this on its Facebook page:

Evidently GoFundMe has shut down our GoFundMe page and will not let us raise any money. Satan’s really at work but I know our God has a plan and wins in the end!

GoFundMe is apparently still giving them the funds that already have been raised. Sweet Cakes has since started a new campaign on Samaritan’s Purse, a nonprofit Christian group.

The final decision of the case will be reviewed by the end of this year by the Oregon State Commissioner.

Photo: Sweet Cakes by Melissa